Archive for the tag “couples”

Mama loved to cook almost as much as she loved to eat. Her chicken-fried steak with gravy, smothered potatoes fried with onions, chicken and dumplings, Mississippi Mud Cake, Banana Pudding and every calorie-laden, heart-attack inducing dish you can imagine were the staples of my childhood. I always woke to the smell of breakfast cooking, even on those early pre-dawn mornings before school. She managed to make homemade biscuits and gravy for us on most mornings, her apron tied around her round midsection, before leaving for work as a cook in either a nursing home or school cafeteria. For Mama, feeding us was her way of showing her love for us.

I learned from my own observations of my parents’ relationship and others that love does not have to be perfect, but it should be right.

This month I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary with the only man I have ever loved. I suppose it has become rare for marriages to survive for that many years, and even rarer for those relationships to be truly happy ones. I like to think that ours is a unique union, given that I first met my husband on a blind date when I was only sixteen. We married just two years later, the summer following my high school graduation. I was an “old” eighteen year-old, with some insight about what love should look like. Looking back, I knew a lot less than I truly believed I knew. But, I was right about one thing-ours is a love meant to be.